The teaching philosophy is for the trainees to learn how to explore for hydrocarbons by actively exploring in an immersive team environment. Active exploration will be backed up with short courses, lectures, tutorials and exploration exercises.
Upon successful completion of the programme trainees will be awarded a professional qualification: Postgraduate Diploma in Hydrocarbon Exploration. For those students willing to undertake a 3 month individual project in addition to the 9 month programme then the degree of MSc in Hydrocarbon Exploration may be awarded.
The exploHUB curriculum is modular:
Module 1
Global Sedimentary Basin Identification and Screening
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Plate tectonic context
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Basin architecture, subsidence rates, heat flow, sediment routing and provenance
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Regional scale sequence stratigraphic methods
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Exploration reconnaissance (topography, bathymetry, gravity, magnetics, onshore geological mapping, shallow coring, seep analysis)
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New exploration techniques (CSEM)
- This introductory module also includes:
- Global energy review
- The geopolitics of oil and gas
- How to frame new country entry decisions
- Health, safety and environmental issues
- Behaviours, ethics, equality and diversity training
Module 2
Exploration Geoscience Field Course to N.E. Scotland and Isle of Skye
- Integration of outcrop and subsurface datasets from the Moray Firth Basin
- Introduction to North Sea geology and play types
- An introduction to exploration on volcanic continental margins by assessing the impact of the British Tertiary Igneous Province on Atlantic Margin petroleum systems
- Controls on Middle Jurassic reservoir distribution and quality in the Minches Basins, Skye
Module 3
Petroleum System Fundamentals
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Source rocks and basin modelling
- Reservoir rocks from a source to sink perspective
- Seal rocks
- Traps (with particular focus on the delineation of subtle stratigraphic traps)
- Timing
- This approach can be summarised as kitchen driven not trap driven exploration with major emphasis on generation potential and migration routes
Module 4
Play and Prospect Analysis
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Play fairway mapping at a regional scale
- Prospect generation and analysis
- Volumetrics
- Risk and Uncertainty
- Play based exploration strategies
Module 5
International Exploration Field Course to Wyoming (U.S.A.)
- Integration of outcrop and subsurface datasets
- Source-to-sink exploration concepts
- Depositional systems mapping and assessment of reservoir potential (shelf, slope and deepwater systems) in the Washakie Laramide Basin of S.Wyoming.
Module 6
'Size of the Prize' Exploration Exercise
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This final module simulates a license round
- Petroleum economics
- Decision Analysis
- Portfolio optimisation
- Operations geology
- Unconventional hydrocarbons
Additional software training
- Integrated into these modules are dedicated training courses in:
- Petrel (Schlumberger)
- R5000 / Openworks / Decision Space (Halliburton / Landmark)
- Techlog (Schlumberger)
- Petromod (Schlumberger)
- Interactive petrophysics (Senergy)
- ODM (Senergy)
